As a founder member of Mystery Women in 1997, promoting Crime Fiction has always been my passion.
Following the closure of Mystery Women, a new group was formed on 30th January 2012 promoting crime fiction.
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Tuesday, 13 January 2015

‘Deeds of Darkness’ by Edward Marston

Published
by Allison & Busby, 15 December 2014.ISBN: 978-0-7490-1519-0

Throughout the book, darkness is
the prevailing theme. It is June 1916 and the Great War has reached one of its
darkest times, the Battle of the Somme. On the Home Front, evil deeds are being
committed under the cover of darkness when a young woman is murdered in the
cinema during a Charlie Chaplin film.

As
DI Harvey Marmion and DS Joe Keedy investigate, the murderer strikes again,
plunging the public into panic as the newspapers publish frenzied demands that
the police find the killer without further delay.

Alice
Marmion is the DI's daughter and DS Keedy's fiancée. Alice is a policewoman in
the newly formed branch of the service and she has a taste of the darker side
of her job when she is put on night duty. At the same time there is a grievous
blow to the family when Marmion's son, Paul, is wounded in the trenches and,
when he recovers consciousness, discovers that he is blind.Marmion
and Keedy cannot allow this cruel blow to their family to distract them from
the pursuit of a disturbed and ruthless killer, who targets and woos his
victims and steals 'trophies' from them after their deaths. They know that this
murderer will not stop until he is caught.

Deeds of
Darkness
is an excellent mystery and the author uses numerous viewpoints with great
skill to enhance the story. Marston's research commands total belief as does
his portrayal of the attitudes of the time. This is the 4th in the
Home Front series and Marston continues to develop all his characters with
subtle touches, bringing life to even the peripheral characters and showing
that nobody is all black or all white, as when the jealous senior policewoman
who has been picking on Alice Marmion shows great sensitivity when dealing with
a distraught witness. Deeds of Darkness stands very well alone and I would
recommend it as an excellent read, but I would urge readers who enjoy
historical crime to start at the first book in the series (A Bespoke Murder)
and read through from there.

Deeds of
Darkness
is a beautifully crafted description of the time, with many interesting
historical details. It is also a fascinating and, at times, chilling, police
procedural with a likeable central cast of characters. I would recommend it.

------

Reviewer: Carol
Westron

Edward Marstonwas born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time
writer for over thirty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the
theatre and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers' Association. Prolific
and highly successful, he is equally at home writing children's books or
literary criticism, plays or biographies.

Carol Westronis a successful short story writer and a Creative Writing teacher.She is the moderator for the cosy/historical
crime panel, The Deadly Dames.Her crime
novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.The Terminal Velocity of Cats is the
first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013. Her second book About the Children was published in May
2014.

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About Me

From an early age I have been a lover of crime fiction. Discovering like minded people at my first crime conference at St Hilda’s Oxford in 1997, I was delighted when asked to join a new group for the promotion of female crime writers. In 1998 I took over the running of the group, which I did for the next thirteen years.
During that time I organised countless events promoting crime writers and in particular new writers. But apart from the sheer joy of reading, ‘I actually love books, not just the writing, the plot or the characters, but the sheer joy of holding a book has never abated for me. The greatest gift of my life has been the ability to read'.